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"Ting" Hembree was the youngest son of John S. Hembree and Mary Spakes Hembree (born 1865 after his father was killed by bushwhackers during the Civil War). He was a younger brother of my great grandmother, Mary Jane Hembree. (Jane H. Crowley)
The following article by Essie P. Cole appeared in the Sparta Expositor October 20, 1977.
My story this week was told be by a man who was born in the year 1888 in White County, Tennessee. His memory is excellent. He worked at one time of Wells Fargo, in Texas. He is a veteran of World War I.
I asked him about a murder that happened around 1906. The murder of T. Hembree and his son, Albert. They were killed by Jim Chisum's son Tom Chisum.
T. Hembree and his little daughter and two sons were gathering corn in Jim Chisum's field. Tom Chisum, his uncle, and daddy were waiting at the gate near the road when T. Hembree came out of the field with a load of corn. Albert was driving the horses and T. Hembree was sitting on the corn. T. Hembree was holding his little daughter with his left arm on his lap and was braking the wagon down a little stint. Tom Chisum shot him in the head, he fell from the wagon-his daughter at his feet. Albert jumped up and Tom Chisum shot him, but the second son got a horse and ran toward the bent. He was shot at also. Well, Tom Chisum was never heard from again. The next morning, Jim Chisum rode to Sparta and got Henry Snodgrass to defend him. Jim Chisum got his boy cleared by lying some about the shooting.
But the night after the shooting took place, Tom Chisum got in a small skiff and went down the Caney Fork River, out of this part of the country. At this time, Kelly Mason was running a store at Walling.
Kelly had two rowdy sons, Joe and Arthur. The town of Walling was incorporated and had two saloons. The town also had a policeman. The police had arrested Joe and had told B. Rogers to watch him. But B. Rogers went to sleep, and Joe escaped and went home. T. Hembree got Joe and took him back to the police station-a small caboose that was used as a jail.
Kelly Mason went after T. Hembree to fight him, but T. Hembree hit Kelly with a black jack and let him lay in a ditch until he came to.
Cele Chisum was the wife of Kelly Mason. It was said that Tom Chisum was hired to kill T. Hembree, the first chance he got. Tom had been to Kelly's house and Cele said as he was leaving, "You be sure that it is done. Tom Hembree is gathering corn down near your way. " Tom Chisum said, "I'll see that it is done." But T. Hembree never thought of any such thing happening. So he and his son lost their lives.
See you all over the back fence. Keep the faith.
by Essie P. Cole
The grave is cold and deep.
In their own, T. and Albert Hembree sleep.
But in a strange land
Lies the man with a restless hand.
There will lay Tom Chisum not at rest
For he killed a friend , one of the best.
A synopsis Incorporating Stories by
Ting's daughter Vivian Lynn Perry
and Essie Cole's Informant and Others
Compiled by Martha Ricks Bond and Jane Hembree Crowley
Lorenzo Dow "Ting" Hembree, son of John and Mary Spakes Hembree along with
his wife, the former Nan Moon of Cannon County and their children, Albert, Tom,
Dewey, and Vivian Lynn lived close to the Old Kentucky Road near the town of
Walling in White County, TN. They got their water from a spring near the base of
a bluff on their property which Ting owned free and clear. While farming was
Ting's principal occupation, he was also a part time policeman. In addition to
working his own farm land, Ting rented at least one field from Jim Chisum which
was located along Webb's Camp Road about two miles from the Hembree
farm.
According to Vivian's recollection, Ting had at times arrested Tom Chisum for public drunkenness but let him go when he was sober. She reports only a friendly relationship between them. Yet on October 25, 1904, all that apparently changed. On that day, Ting and his sons Albert and Tom Hembree were preparing to go to the rented field to harvest the last of the corn. Albert and Tom were ages 17 and 15 at the time. Ting's only daughter, Vivian, who was almost two years old at the time cried to go along on this corn harvesting trip. "My baby wants to go along, and she will go!" Ting said. So Nan tied a little bonnet on Vivian's head but kept her six-year-old son Dewey with her at the house.
The corn was loaded on the wagon. Albert was driving (according to Cole) while Ting rode on the load holding baby Vivian on his lap, operating the brake on the wagon as it went down a slight incline or "stint." (Vivian differs, saying Ting was driving, she in his lap. Albert alighted to open the gate.) When they reached the gate, Tom Chisum, along with his uncle and Joe Mason, were waiting. Ting never suspected their purpose for being there. (Vivian only mentions Tom Chisum but James R. John D. and Tom Chisum were indicted for first degree murder.)
"Nice team of mules you got there," said Chisum. (according to Vivian)
"Thank you," replied Albert Hembree.
Tom Chisum raised this gun and shot Ting Hembree in the head (through his hat band according to Vivian). Albert Hembree went toward Tom Chisum and was shot in the chest. With parting shots at Tom Hembree, the Chisums and Mason rode away. Tom Hembree unhitched one of the mules and rode for help.
When Tom Hembree returned with "old man ‘Lige Wiley" (according to Vivian), Tom's brother Albert was dead. Ting had fallen from the wagon with his daughter Vivian at his feet. Her little pink bonnet was soaked with blood. Dying, Ting's last words were, "My Baby?" Wiley told him not to worry that his baby was unharmed. Ting probably never knew that his son Albert had bled to death a few yards away.
Ting and his son Albert were buried in a small cemetery in a field along the west side of the Old Kentucky Road just south of Hickory Nut Mountain Road. They lie beside the small grave of another of Ting and Nan's sons, Roy, who died of measles at age three. Nan would join them in just eleven years in 1915, dead of consumption and grief. Upon their mother's death, thirteen year old Vivian went to live with her brother Tom Hembree and seventeen year old Dewey lived with his cousin Wylie Hembree for a time. Tom Hembree had married Eliza Odell in White County five years earlier in 1909 and eventually bought a farm near Lewisburg, TN in Marshall County.Tom and Eliza had a son Alvin, who never married.
The day after the shooting, Tom Chisum escaped on a skiff down the Caney Fork River and is said to have gone to Canada and later to Texas. Jim Chisum rode a horse to Sparta, the county seat of White County, and hired attorney Henry Snodgrass as the Chisums' defense lawyer. Thomas, James and John D. Chisum was indicted for the first degree murder of Ting and his son Albert Hembree. James and John pleaded "not guilty"in the January 1905 term of the Circuit Court. Cordell Hull was the judge. Summoned for state's witnesses were: G. W. Chisum, J. L. Neil, Will Hayes, Eligah Wiley, Jim Dunham, T. G. Hembree, Mrs. Jane Dunham, and Mrs. N. A. Hembree. Unfortunately, Tom apparently could not be tried because he had escaped. According to Cole's informant, Chisum got away with it because they "told a lot of lies."
Ting's widow, Nan, sold much of the family's goods, except the farm, to have money to pay for trying to see that Tom Chisum was found and convicted and if possible return to White County, TN to be punished for this deed. She was unsuccessful. In the 1980's, some of Tom Chisum's grandchildren reportedly came to White County in search of their grandfather's kinfolk. They had heard that he had originally come from the area but could not find any "Thompson families" for the very good reason that their grandfather Tom Chisum had apparently changed his name to Tom Thompson and went by that name for the rest of his life. Horrified at this news, these people reportedly tried to contact any descendants or cousins of Ting to apologize for what had happened. This however, has not been substantiated.
One wonders what could have driven Tom Chisum to commit this horrible deed. Cole's informant reported that Tom Chisum was "hired" to kill Ting. Tom Chisum's aunt was Cele Chisum Mason, sister of Jim Chisum. Her husband Kelly Mason operated a small store in Walling, which was at that time a small incorporated town. The town had two saloons and a rail remodeled from a derelict railroad caboose. The Mason sons, Joe and Arthur, were well known for being "rowdy."
Joe and Arthur Mason had reportedly been arrested by a policeman, possibly by Ting Hembree. One B. Rogers, otherwise unidentified, was charged with watching the prisoners but went to sleep. Joe Mason escaped. Ting brought him back to jail the next day. This seems to have angered their father, who went looking for Ting to "fight him." Ting hit him with his "black jack," knocked him out, and left him in a ditch until he regained consciousness.
That night at the Mason home, it was mentioned that Ting would be gathering corn "down your way." Cele Chisum Mason is reported to have told her nephew Tom Chisum to "See that it is done." Tom Chisum replied, "It will be done." Cole goes further and says that Tom was hired to kill Hembree, but gives no details. Tom Chisum was twenty five years old in 1904 when the murder occurred. One wonders what could have persuaded a young man to throw away his future to commit such a deed. Yet, this event is still talked about with the clarity and interest of breaking news on CNN.
Ting's daughter, Vivian, who died in 2000 wrote of these events with great sadness in what appears to be tear-stained letters. "I never knew my father, but he was a wonderful man," she writes. "I know he loved me, for his last words were ‘my baby'."
How seldom are we conscious of the far-reaching and long-lasting effects of our actions, good or bad. This story is a reminder to me of the timelessness of events in our personal histories. What's done cannot be undone or history rewritten. And for some, the story never ends as descendants search for the truth and for closure on events that continue to affect the family for long years after the actual event took place.
To those loved ones who have passed on, may you rest in peace. And for those remaining and searching for truth and closure, may you too, find peace.
Epilogue
by Jane Hembree Crowley
In the summer of 2001, I received the following information from a Chisam family researcher.
Thomas Chisam was dropped from the case in April 1905 and the case became The State vs. James R. and John D. Chisom. They were acquitted in September 1905. James was Tom's father and John was an uncle.
Thomas Chisam probably never left the state. He left the scene and headed for his brother's place in Louisville, TN in the Knoxville area, where he stayed until he joined the Navy. His mother reportedly would take a train, every so often, to Louisville, to see Tom and her other son's family, taking pecan pies to them. The officials never questioned these movements.
Accoding to his son, James Thompson, Thomas Andrew Chisam changed his name to Andrew Charles Thompson in 1907 as indicated by his naval records. Initial enlistment was August 1907 at Chattanooga, TN. He retired from active duty in 1922, went to Lancaster, TX in 1925 where he became a policeman, married a Miss Frazier in 1927 and had 3 children. One was a son James, and perhaps a daughter Patricia. He died in Texas on July 5, 1950 and is buried in Laureland Memorial Park in Dallas, Dallas County, TX.